Tuesday, April 3, 2012

After Benedict's visit

In his final mass in Havana in his
1998 visit, Pope John Paul II blessed the cornerstone of a seminary that existed
only as an idea awaiting Cuban government approval. The rock sat for years in the hall outside
Cardinal Ortega’s office. Eventually construction
of the seminary was approved, the Cuban government assisted, and the San Carlos
and San Ambrosio seminary was inaugurated in 2010 with Raul Castro in
attendance. Dozens of future Cuban
priests are training there now, a hopeful step forward for a church that has
long relied heavily on foreign clergy.

This story comes to mind now as I
read the analyses following the visit of Benedict XVI.

I’m not
one who expected the papal visit to spark big changes in Cuba, and I don’t have
the visit plotted on a political scorecard.
The short-term impact of the pastoral visit was summed
up by Miami Bishop Agustin Roman: it was a “spiritual retreat” for Cuban
Catholics.

The visit’s political impact, I
would guess, will play out over years in the form of Vatican support for the
Cuban church’s efforts to gain more space for its activities: education, media
access, and more. The government made a
quick gesture in that regard by declaring Good Friday a work holiday (AP).

Some coverage from the past week:

Laura Wides-Munoz of AP’s Miami
bureau accompanied Cuban Americans during their visits and wrote a very
poignant article
about their impressions, good and bad.

On the mass in Havana from the Washington
Post, the New
York Times, and the Wall
Street Journal. More from the Times
on the remarks by Cuba’s economic reform czar, Marino Murillo, to the effect
that the economy will continue changing but Cuba will not have political
reform.